#BookSnapSunday – Regeneration

I am a little late with this week’s Book Snap. I had to take a trip to emergency with Dan. Long arms and ceiling fans are not a good combination. Fortunately nothing was broken, just two fingers gashed and a couple of nasty bruised and swollen joints. Dan has quite long bony fingers and it’s …

#Book Snap on a Tuesday – That Deadman Dance

I am running a little behind with this week's Book Snap, but better late than never. That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2011 and is pictured above in the Gumbi Gumbi Gardens at USQ in Toowoomba. Set in Western Australia, the book's central focus is Bobby, a young …

#BookSnapSunday – The God of Small Things

This week I’m borrowing an idea from Sharon from Gum Trees and Galaxies, who used the beautiful pond at Laurel Bank Park for her snap of Claude Monet's Mad Enchantment a few weeks ago. The floating water lilies and reeds was the perfect backdrop for Arundhati Roy’s debut novel, The God of Small Things, which was awarded …

Carnival of Flowers – Celebrating 70 Years

It’s the first weekend of the September School Holidays, the flowers are out in full bloom and the local parks and gardens are crowded with visitors and tour buses. It must be Carnival time. The Carnival of Flowers is Toowoomba’s premiere event of the year, a festival that celebrates flowers, local wine and food, and …

Laurel Bank Park

 Increasingly we are becoming a nation of city dwellers. The migration from the bush to the coast in search of study and employment opportunities expands the urban sprawl of our major cities and empties our once thriving rural towns. But the city can be a busy, noisy and polluted place, especially in its heart - …

The Last Stop

The Great Australian Dream For decades now the Great Australian Dream has been a home of one's own. We grow up aspiring to be home-owners. When I was growing up, it was the quarter acre block. Nowadays blocks are a lot smaller, but the dream is still the same - a home of one's own. …

#BookSnapSunday – Pride and Prejudice

  This week's #Book Snap is the classic Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I have just finished reading this for my course Texts in Adaptation, and as I was reading, and taking notes for the essay, I was thinking about how I could frame the photo. My lecturer made a comment in our lecture …

Mr Percival in the Creek

  Strolling along the West Creek walkway, we spot a variety of birdlife. We see ducks swimming on the pond or waddling near the bank, little birds that flit over our heads,  and as we start to approach magpie season,  those black and white marauders that like to swoop on unsuspecting walkers. There is even a rogue …

#BookSnapSunday – The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

I am joining in again with Sharon for #Book Snap Sunday and it seems that we both had the same idea; taking inspiration from our natural environment. As you can see from the picture above, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, by Holly Ringland, is perched somewhat precariously on a branch in what I think is …

Toowoomba – Garden City

On most mornings of the week, after I take Dan to Yellow Bridge, I like to take a walk along the West Creek walkway. Passing walkers with dogs straining at the leash and children on bikes, enjoying their last days of freedom before the end of the school holidays, I realise how spoilt we are …